


Before the Cottage - Cuddle Theory

by Dragonsquill (dragonsquill)



Series: The Cottage, the Husbands [13]
Category: Good Omens (TV), Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
Genre: Cuddling, Fluff, M/M, Other, incorrectly formatted footnotes, shameless fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-29
Updated: 2020-02-29
Packaged: 2021-02-28 04:08:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,126
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22957675
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dragonsquill/pseuds/Dragonsquill
Summary: In which cuddling is both a theory and, finally, a practice.
Relationships: Aziraphale/Crowley (Good Omens)
Series: The Cottage, the Husbands [13]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1403908
Comments: 23
Kudos: 182





	Before the Cottage - Cuddle Theory

When he’d thought about what cuddling with Crowley would be like, [1] Aziraphale had rather assumed there would be a certain period of necessary adjustment to find the most comfortable way to press in close with someone who carried perhaps 5% fat over their entire body. This hadn’t dissuaded his imagination; while not at Crowley’s level, Aziraphale’s love of the written word had developed his own ability to daydream satisfactorily. By the time the actual act of cuddling came up between them -some 5700 years or so since its human adaptation - Aziraphale thought he had a fair idea of how flat and bony and generally uncomfortable the act would be.

\---

[1] And he had, far longer than Crowley expected - cuddling was an animal invention that humans quickly adapted, and they were still figuring out how to make skins into proper clothes the first time Aziraphale pondered what it must be like to maintain such close contact with another being [1b] and imagined, if not followed through on, asking his only immortal coworker to experiment on the pros and cons of cuddling versus cowering for warmth

[1b] (Stifling? Warm? Nice? They were rather odiferous, these early humans..but that demon he was always running into smelled rather nicely of woodsmoke and something he couldn’t identify [1c] and so perhaps he might be the best one to experiment with? If he wasn’t a demon, of course.)

[1c][cinnamon, he would learn much later]

\----

However, he had also, over this time, fallen rather madly in love with Crowley, and so had decided that a certain lack of comfort was perfectly fine if it meant being close to his beloved demon. Anything, in fact, was worth it, now that they could safely be together. Besides, _he_ was nice and soft, and so could be the cuddler and Crowley the cuddlee, if need be.

What he had not expected was for the moment to come so naturally that he was, in fact, already curled against Crowley’s side, with Crowley’s arm around him and Crowley’s breath ruffling through his curls and Crowley’s voice reading aloud (it had taken so little to convince him, really, and Azirpahale was _terribly_ pleased) when he realized that oh. 

He was actually quite comfortable.

“Oh!” he said aloud, startling Crowley mid-word and bringing those lovely yellow eyes toward him, though he couldn’t see them as his cheek was currently snuggled against the demon’s arm. “What a pleasant surprise!”

“Surprissse?” Crowley asked, the hiss one of lazy comfort rather than distress, and Aziraphale liked that, too. He liked Crowley truly comfortable, not circling and watching and twitching, but just _being_ , warm and brilliant in Aziraphale’s company. 

“Yes, dearest,” Aziraphale said, too happy to stop and consider what he was about to say (and besides, he had stopped and considered for SO long, and wasn’t the point of being on their own side that they could say what they wanted and do what they willed?). “I’d fancied cuddling,” (“ _Cuddling?”_ Crowley bunged in, as if Aziraphale was cursing, but Azirpahale paid him no mind ), “would be a bit of a challenge, but it’s not at all, is it?”

There was a moment of silence, and then, in a low voice that thrummed with something Aziraphale had always secretly known was fond amusement, though he’d spent millenia pretending it was something else, Crowley asked, “A challenge? I need a bit of clarification, Angel.”

“Ah! Well!” Aziraphale moved as if to pull away, but Crowley’s arm was clearly unimpressed with the idea and refused to be of any assistance. Aziraphale resettled rather than engage in a round of wrestling that he would, frankly, win. “You are rather made up of sharp corners, and I’d thought an elbow or three might find its way into my ribcage, but really you’re quite warm and lovely.”

Another beat, and then, incredulous: “You thought I was too _skinny_ to,” the word caught on the demonish tongue, “ _cuddle with_?”

Aziraphale lifted his head, trying to see Crowley’s face but catching only his nose and part of an eye. “Well, I’ve never - there’s never been anyone else to try with, has there?” he asked, a bit petulantly. “How was I to know?”

The line of Crowley’s jaw was hard. [2] “Is that why you’re always trying to get me to share your desserts?”

\---

[2] This was because he was trying very hard not to laugh, but Aziraphale wasn’t aware of this at the time.

\----

Aziraphale sat up, superior strength batting Crowley’s arm away with minimum effort. “My _dear_ , of _course_ not, you _must_ know that I would cuddle-”

Crowley’s mouth was twisted into a strange shape. “You really need another word-”

Azirphale blushed but obligingly and daring said, “ _-Canoodle_ with you no matter what your form! You are the only cu-” he caught himself, “-canoodler in my heart.” He rested a soft hand over his corporation’s chest, eyes wide and beseeching.

One burnished eyebrow rose. “Do you even know what canoodling means, Aziraphale?” he asked, and maybe there was a new sort of hiss to his voice that the angel hadn’t heard before.

Aziraphale sniffed, cheeks still pink. “Of course I do! It means to...to…” he cleared his throat and straightened his shoulders as if teaching a lesson, “to kiss and cuddle amorously.”

Crowley tsked. “And here I thought you were a precious innocent.”

“Oh, Crowley, please don’t _start_ -”

“And here you’ve been-”

“Darling.”

“-checking me over for my ability to _cuddle amorously_.” He was grinning now, a little too broad, the whites of his eyes disappearing behind delighted honey yellow. 

Aziraphale’s eyes narrowed. “You,” he said accusingly, “are _teasing_ me.”

“I am, Angel, I am. But in my defense, you just confessed that you thought I was uncuddleable, and that you had been _thinking_ about this for some time, and you’d decided I’m too _pointy_.”

Aziraphale harumphed delicately. “You _are_ pointy,” he argued, even as he pulled his feet up and muscled his way back under Crowley’s arm. His voice softened as Crowley chuckled to himself, and he took long, thin fingers in his own plump ones. “And I would not have you change for the world.”

A little shift, and Crowley asked, “What about heaven?”

Aziraphale scoffed again. “You are worth a million angels and a thousand heavens.” 

Crowley snickered. Aziraphale cuddled. Crowley pressed a kiss into the mess of white blond curls. “Canoodling,” he said, on the bark of a laugh.

“Later, darling. Baby steps.” Aziraphale grinned to himself at the indeterminate noise that earned. “For now,” he wiggled happily closer, “you have a chapter to finish.”

If Crowley finished the chapter at a somewhat unacceptable speed for proper reading aloud, Aziraphale made no mention of it. He could be a gentleman, after all.


End file.
